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There was not also the obsession with background checks & credit checks back then (if they even existed). Bad credit specifically bad debt now makes you ineligible for employment in many industries (accounting & finance especially). There is also alot of paranoia & hostility toward others which comes out on the interviewers side (ex. if you are unemployed for 'too long' regardless of the reason you are automatically summarily rejected)
It also appears that NO ONE wants to make a decision, they are always 'passing along' your Resume/information to the "Next Person" who will be in touch with you..
Even temp jobs now require phone & 'face to face' interviews with the actual client plus the background & credit check.
I had my "one and only" background check done (company had me sign a document so they could do it) was in 2003. Before that job, I was never asked to sign anything dealing with a background check.
Another thing that didn't happen, at least to me, back then was Pre-Employment Physical. Again, the only Pre-Employment Physical I ever had to do was for the job I got in 2003.
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Originally Posted by NickL28
There was not also the obsession with background checks & credit checks back then (if they even existed). Bad credit specifically bad debt now makes you ineligible for employment in many industries (accounting & finance especially). There is also alot of paranoia & hostility toward others which comes out on the interviewers side (ex. if you are unemployed for 'too long' regardless of the reason you are automatically summarily rejected)
It also appears that NO ONE wants to make a decision, they are always 'passing along' your Resume/information to the "Next Person" who will be in touch with you..
Even temp jobs now require phone & 'face to face' interviews with the actual client plus the background & credit check.
Even though my wife has a Bachelor's in Business w/emphasis on Accounting, not all companies require that to work in Accounting. Only the Acctg. Supervisor, Controller, Financial Analyst and CFO had to have a degree in the last company I worked for.......none of the Accountants did. I worked in the Materials Dept as a Materials Coordinator (Purchasing/Inventory) and asked the Acctg. Supervisor about this. Now, even though I didn't need a degree and/or certification, my Director/Supervisor did. He had a Bachelor's along with Certifications as a CPM and CPIM that came from APICS.
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Originally Posted by North Beach Person
Partially true, partially not.
Things were "Made In Japan" but they tended to be small things like toys and not cars. Seeing a foreign make auto was unusual, the most common was the VW Beetle with a smattering of a couple other VW models. A Benz marked a person as high class and a bit pompous. The Japanese cars that are so common today (Honda, Datsun (Nissan), Toyota) were extremely rare and basically throw away econoboxes.
Clothes and then electronics like TVs were made in Mexico, other electronics were made in Japan, better quality like SONY.
The first real breakpoint was in 1973 with the first oil-price shock, companies laid people off, became more efficient in energy use and production techniques, the second was the run up in oil prices in 1979. It had the same effect as the first. The recession from that one lasted into the early 1980's and things really didn't start to improve until 1983 or so. By that time many companies had gone out of business totally, contracted their operations, became more efficient or moved their facilities South where costs were much less than in what became known as the Rust Belt.
Companies had begun off-shoring in the 1950's but that trend accelerated in the late 1980's and through the 1990's. American factory workers had become too expensive so manufacturing followed to lower wage areas. Those places, like Korea, are now becoming too expensive and manufacturing is moving to countries like Viet Nam and Malaysia.
Someone mentioned degrees and certifications. There has been creep in that also. Jobs like bookkepping for a company were done by bright high school graduates who'd taken a Basic Accounting course. Now an Accounting Degree is required.
My mom was telling me at that time in U.S History, you could quit a job on Friday and have another one by Monday. She said that's how easy it was to get a job back at that time and it wasn't a such thing as
resumes
2nd interviews
Also she said the unemployment office found you a job so fast that it wasn't a such thing as receiving unemployment compensation for several months.
IS all of this true?
Ah,the wonderfulness of the 60's.
A lot depended on your draft status if you were male. 1A not so good because you could be there today and gone tomorrow. Seeing as how we had over half a million men in Vietnam in 1969 chances of being gone tomorrow were relatively high.
I got tired of being stuck in a low end job looking for a better one so I bit the bullet and volunteered for the draft in 1968. Kind of cool they even allowed me to pick my day unlike others who were simply told to report. Two years guaranteed employment with medical benefits!
1973 was not good we were in a recession. Jobs were not easy to find and you certainly didn't get one over a weekend.
What was interesting, was the gender discrimination, problems for vets to get jobs, and racism. My Dad came home from 'Nam in 1970, he could not get a job when an employer knew he was in Vietnam. He just was home, smoking cigs, day after day. My Mom got a job, as a Playboy bunny cocktail waitress at the Playboy club, she wore a bunny costume to work. For real. And our black neighbor? He tried to get a job at Xerox, was hired as the first "token"...how is that for pressure?! And he was in every picture they took of the "company" to show how integrated it was...
My son decided to stay in the Army after hearing his friends talk about the job situation. He was in Japan, and is hoping to get placed stateside for awhile...my daughter, has really had a tough time finding anything. Just the way it is.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The 1970s were a bad time to try and get a good job for white males. Affirmative action was all the rage, and women were being sought for non-traditional roles. Still, in general, there was a lot of growth and jobs were there to be had. Also, the college degrees helped, since a much lower percentage of people had them. I did work as a teen in the late 60s but
not in a real full time job as I was still in high school.
My mom was telling me at that time in U.S History, you could quit a job on Friday and have another one by Monday. She said that's how easy it was to get a job back at that time and it wasn't a such thing as
resumes
2nd interviews
Also she said the unemployment office found you a job so fast that it wasn't a such thing as receiving unemployment compensation for several months.
IS all of this true?
My first job was in 1965 and, yes, my experience was the same as your mother's. Here in Houston it was not uncommon to work for the same company for 40 years and retire with a pension -- or quit a job one day and have another job the next.
In the 1970's and 1980's, I worked for a number of small companies that either went under or were sold to other companies but I always had a job the next day. In fact, I often had my choice of jobs.
I'm not bragging -- that's just the way it was here in Houston back then. I lucked out by getting into the oil/gas industry and a field that always needed people. My heart breaks for those trying to get jobs today. I cant begin to imagine how difficult and discouraging it must be.
So funny you should say this. Just this weekend I caught Kramer vs. Kramer on OnDemand and there was a scene in which Dustin Hoffman is fired from his job. He packs up his portfolio and walks right in to a firm on the night they are having their Xmas party and demands to be seen, runs down his quals and basically says hire me now or I walk. And he was hired! Now I know this isn't 100% accurate in any time but I laughed thinking how ridic that is and how that would never remotely fly in 2011.
Funny, I watched Kramer vs. Kramer this past week too! I laughed at the job-hunting scene too. Nobody today would get a job in one day by walking into a company in the middle of their Christmas party and demanding an offer on the spot and actually getting it.
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There aren't such things as 2nd interviews anymore. I had 5 for my current job, and 4 interviews for the one before that. These aren't senior-level or prestigious jobs either.
Not true. Large companies full of bureaucracy may require a long drawn out process, perhaps. Small businesses (which account for more than 50% of employers) don't need and can't afford such a drawn out process. They don't need HR to go through multiple rounds of screening interviews. The connection between applicants and senior management is direct and hiring decisions can easily be made after one or two interviews.
It's true that hiring involves much more paperwork--tax forms, background checks, and paper trails. But it's not true that 2nd interviews 'don't exist'.
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